Dogon Of Mali Research Articles

Predictors of fecundability and conception waits among the Dogon of Mali.

Surprisingly little is known about the mechanisms that underlie variation in female fertility in humans. Data on this topic are nonetheless vital to a number of pragmatic and theoretical enterprises, including population planning, infertility treatment and prevention, and evolutionary ecology. Here we study female fertility by focusing on one component of the interbirth interval: the waiting time to conception during menstrual cycling. Our study population is a Dogon village of 460 people in Mali, West Africa. This population is pronatalist and noncontracepting. In accordance with animist beliefs, the women spend five nights sleeping at a menstrual hut during menses. By censusing the women present at the menstrual huts in the study village on each of 736 consecutive nights, we were able to monitor women's conception waits prospectively. Hormonal profiles confirm the accuracy of the data on conception waits obtained from the menstrual hut census (Strassmann [1996], Behavioral Ecology 7:304-315). Using survival analysis, we identified significant predictors of the waiting time to conception: wife's age (years), husband's age (< 35, 35-49, > 49 years), marital duration (years), gravidity (number of prior pregnancies), and breast-feeding status. Additional variables were not significant, including duration of postpartum amenorrhea, sex of the last child, nutritional status, economic status, polygyny, and marital status (fiancée vs. married). We fit both continuous and discrete time survival models, but the former appeared to be a better choice for these data.

Differences de mortalite chez les Dogon de Boni

Mortality has been analyzed at the level of a small population of approximately 5000 persons, part of the Dogon of Mali. They are separated into four distinct groups, each composed of from three to four villages. Adjusted life tables are estimated for two periods of five years: 1977-81 and 1982-86. First these tables were calculated for the entire population and then for two of the most densely populated massifs. Mortality is very high. However, it is different in the two areas. This difference, already notable in 1977-81, increased during the period 1982-86. Possible causal factors could be linked to the presence of primary health care in the Tabi region. Although very limited, the care changed elementary rules of hygiene. Moreover, comparison between villages point to the important role of the quality and quantity of available water in relation to child mortality levels.

L'identité au forçage de l'histoire. À propos de l'occident Dogon

Andre Gache — Identity under the Force of History. How to make the same out of something different? The attempt to answer this is based on a study of the western part of the region inhabited by the Dogon in Mali. Dogon country is an 'inbetween'; around its edges, centralized states have, since the Late Middle Ages, evolved following a process of composition-decompo-sition-recomposition. The people living there originally came from these political formations. These peoples of various origins found, in this region, a location favorable to the defence of small units. Over time, this original plurality took the form of a solid, combative 'ethnie group' with a dual system of discourse. This group immediately produces, for itself and others, an explanatory discourse postu-lating its unity from its very origins. This postulate is a kind of law that is ail the more clearly formulated insofar as the origins are beyond control. During the 'night', the question of origins 'gives birth' to a 'secret' discourse, which, once decoded, helps us see into the obscurity of the social and political processes at work in this region's history.

The function of menstrual taboos among the dogon

Menstrual taboos are nearly ubiquitous and assume parallel forms in geographically distant populations, yet their function has baffled researchers for decades. This paper proposes that menstrual taboos are anticuckoldry tactics. By signaling menstruation, they may advertise female reproductive status to husbands, affines, and other observers. Females may therefore have difficulty in obfuscating the timing of the onset of pregnancy. This may have three consequences: (a) males are better able to assess their probabilities of paternity and to direct their parental investment toward genetic offspring; (b) adulterous pregnancies are more easily detected and penalized, enhancing sexual fidelity; and (c) males avoid marrying pregnant females by relying on menstruation as evidence of nonpregnancy. This hypothesis is tested with 29 months of field data on menstrual taboos among the Dogon of Mali. Key results include the following: (a) cuckoldry is a major Dogon concern, (b) menstrual huts advertise female reproductive status, (c) husbands impose the taboos upon their wives, (d) female defiance of the taboos is undetectable and probably rare, and (e) informants think that the taboos help husbands and patrilineages to avoid cuckoldry. Thus the anti-cuckoldry hypothesis provides helpful insight into the menstrual taboos of the Dogon and should be tested among other populations.

On Griaule on Trial

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussion and CriticismOn Griaule on TrialLuc De HeuschLuc De Heusch Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 32, Number 4Aug. - Oct., 1991 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/203978 Views: 3Total views on this site Citations: 4Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Denise D. Barros, Aghi A. Bahi, Paula Morgado « Dogonité » et Internet, Anthropologie et Sociétés 35, no.1-21-2 (Nov 2011): 69–86.https://doi.org/10.7202/1006369arBeth Buggenhagen Picking up the Thread, Anthropology <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Humanism 31, no.11 (Jun 2006): 57–74.https://doi.org/10.1525/ahu.2006.31.1.57Beth Buggenhagen Picking up the Thread, Anthropology and Humanism 31, no.11 (Oct 2008): 57–74.https://doi.org/10.1525/anhu.2006.31.1.57 Modern Mysteries, (): 171–189.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-48942-1_11

The Dogon of Mali and Upper Volta

The Dogon of Mali and Upper Volta